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    October 253 1856. j THE LEADER, 1025 ii ...

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    THE HISTORY OF THE SARACENS. The History...

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    THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. The Eighteenth C...

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    Sea Anemones. A Manual Of The 8ea Anemon...

    Chrysanthemum , and too gorgeously arrayed ; it is a good four inches across , pearlywhite in the centre , then a broad ring of translucent lake , and then the petals!—row after row of transparent tentacles ringed with lake and delicate brown , and pearly white . Does not this come up to your " heart ' s desire ? " If not , you must be very hard to please . Ah ! you have touched it , and it has vanished entirely ; we can see nothing but gravel , and a little crab , which is scuttling away sideways , in a state of pugnacious amazement . ITow , if you put your hand down upon the place where you last saw the flower , you will feel a round lump of gravel ; scrape away all the loose stones round it , and then with the knife detach it very gently from its resting-place , or , if the rock be soft , chisel it away as patiently as you can . This is Actinia coriacea ( the " thick-skinned" anemone ) , and he puts on this coat of stones to conceal and

    defend himself , and every stone is attached by means of minute suckers , with which his body is covered . Recollect that the least injury done to this anemone is generally fatal , and also remember that you may frequently discover him when he is not expanded , by feeling diligently in shingly nooks and corners just covered by the water , or even at the bottom of deep pools . There are innumerable varieties of this kind ; the body is generally marbled with red an . orange , and always studded with large white or opal tubercles or warts , but the colour of the disk and tentacles—i . e . of the expanded bloom , —is infinite in its changes : russet-green , crimson and white , red and orange , heather-tinted , dove-colour and lake , —every possible gradation of these and every other colour , though I can ' t say I ever saw a blue sea-anemone , which is as great a desideratum as a blue dahlia .

    Having arrived at tie extremity of the point , and at the lowest level of the lowest tide , we will set our crowbar to work . Here is a large rock , well sheltered from the Atlantic swell , well covered with coralline and sea-weed , and well situated in the midst of a large pool , so that its base is always under water in all weathers . _] NTow , heave and with a will ! Over it rolls ! Away rush half a dozen bull-heads , and a young conger , viciously writhing , and lashing his tail as though he would do us a mischief if he could ; and only look at the crabs ! Let ns pick up that flat , hairy , dingy little rascal ^ he is a curiosity , by name platycheies , or " the broad-clawed , " arid very broad 3 iis claws are , for the pair of them side by side would more than cover hia

    whole body : he is of a rather sulky disposition ,- —a little crabbed , we should say , if it wasn ' t for the apparent pun , —but he will lie harmlessly enough with our anemones ¦ when we get him home . Here is a pink button sticking to the stone , streaked with vertical lines of small opal dots or tubercles , six or more of these lines being very distinctly composed of larger tubercles of an opaque white colour . This is Actinia gemmacea , " the gem , " or , in the vernacular , " buttons . " He will disclose about fifty snaky , barred and spotted tentacles ; and his mouth is of a brilliant green , and there are half a dozen other colours you will discover in him when he is well opened tomorrow . This is a treasure ; it is common enough on the North Devon coast , but almost peculiar to that locality .

    The third chapter— " What is its name ? " —is devoted to a classification of the Anemones such as will enable the amateur to identify the treasures liehas founds We observe , among the varieties of Mesembryanihemum , ' M . Y Tugwell has omitted to notice the Invisible Green—in the pools it appears jet black . We believe the variety is uncommon , but we found it on the rocksof YVaterwynch , near Tenby , and its colour is sufficiently marked for : variety . . ' . . ' . ¦ . ¦ ' : '¦¦ ¦ ¦ . - . ¦ .: ¦ ' ., ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ' : . _ Chapter IV . is '[ How shall I keep it Alive , " and contains excellent practical suggestions on the subject of Aquaria . Chapter V . is on the habits of the Animal , and Chapter VI . is on the distinctions of Genera and Species . Thus are all the questions which a popular Manual can pretend to answer answered in this work , which the naturalist will read . with , interest , and the amateur earnestly desire to possess . When the reader goes to the sea-side , let hi ™ -place this little volume in his carpet-bag .

    October 253 1856. J The Leader, 1025 Ii ...

    October 253 1856 . j THE LEADER , 1025 ii ¦ ¦ ¦ i ¦« ¦ i' ¦ ¦ ¦ — . ii — _^^^ _^ . ^ _^^^^ ^^— IM ^ ^ ^ ^^ J ^_^^^^_^^_^_^^—_— — . _ ¦ i ——»

    The History Of The Saracens. The History...

    THE HISTORY OF THE SARACENS . The History and Conquests of the Saracens . By Edward A . Freeman , M . A . J . H . and J . Parker . This volume has grown out of a course of Lectures delivered by Mr . Freenaan before the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh . It contains a neat summary of the principal facts of Saracenic , or , rather , Mohammedan history , beginning with the birth of the Prophet , and ending with the fall of the Indian Moguls . We are glad to receive such a book from the hands of a competent scholar , because it will supersede a variety of illiterate compilations that are circulated merely on account of their popular form and strong pretensions . Mr . Freeman is not an Oriental scholar ; we do not even find that he is acquainted , to any extent , with the writings of English and French Orientalists on the military and social annals of El-Islam : in

    treating of the Mogul dynasty , he makes not a single allusion ( except an evasion in the preface ) to Erskine ' s groat work , a study of which is absolutely essential to a comprehension of the characters both of Timour and his successor ; but with these , and with other obvious shortcomings , the work is nevertheless a sound one , and , though small , deserving of a place in historical collections . The distribution of the narrative into sections , though arbitrary , has been carried out upon an intelligible plan . To comprehend the chronicles of the Mohammedan empire and conquest , it is essential to take a survey of the condition of the known world at the date of the prophet's birth . The first period naturally includes the story of his personal career , and the analysis of the religion he established . The second , less necessarily , though appropr iately enough , is confined to the romantic

    history of his earlier successors , the subjugation of Persia , Syria , and Egypt , the origin of the great schism between the adherents and the foes of Ali , the Caliphates of Damascus , and the erection of the dynasty of Abbas . In the third period the Abbassides decline ; the Saracen power is weakened and divided ; rival Caliphates spring up in Egypt and Spain ; various Turkish families rise to sovereignty in the East ; the crusades are commenced ; the vast Saracenic Empire crumbles away . A separate , though partly parallel nJ * rr £ tion . takes iyi tne P rogres 3 of the Mohammedans in Western Europethe Spanish Caliphate and its offspring of minor states , with the Saracenic settlements of France , Italy , Sicily , and Crete . Finally , in the remoter ii-ast , lslamism assumes several distinct and curious shapes—in the Persian lino of the Sophis , the Tartar lino of the Moguls , the wars of Ishmael and

    Atlantic to the Euphrates , almost round the Mediterranean Sea , far through Europe , through Asia Minor , Syria , and part of Armenia . His rival , a prince of the Sassanidae , was perhaps * powerful , and far more illustrious . Thus , the sovereign governments of the epoch were not idolatrous , for the Persians were not idolators . Mr . Freeman does , well in insisting upon this point . He is perhaps wrong in calling them heathens , unless the Mohammedans themselves are heathenish ; for surely the faith of the Prophet is far less spiritual , far less exalted than that of the supremely pure and subtle creed of the Magi . We think Mr . Freeman is not altogether right in describing the Persian deity as scarcely a personal being , but a dim and shadowy abstraction . The Oracles call him Father ; to his Mind is attributed the creation of all things ; he is the Unbegotten Dispenser of all Good , Self-taught , Wise , and the Only Inventor of the Sacred Philosophy . However , it is true that popular superstition had corrupted the doctrines of

    Zoroaster by introducing visible , though at the same time natural , types and objects of adoration ; it is true , also , that mysticism had worked its way deeply among the M agian priesthood . But the precepts of their faith were sublime ; they stood at an immeasurable elevation above the pagan races of the more distant East , and it will ever remain doubtful whether Mohammedanism did not disseminate coarser and less ennobling principles , at least in the Persian Empire . But in Arabia , in the deserts in the midst of which it sprang , the patriarchal monotheism had been to a great extent supplanted by the adoration of subordinate powers ; national , local , and family idols were worshipped ; first-fruits and oblations were offered idolatrously ; the antique Kaaba of Mecca was crowded with graven and molten images : hither Mohammed came as a real reformer . To the Sabseans his teaching

    was purification ; by the Magi it was scarcely needed . But beyond the Sabeean and Magian boundaries stood the gloomy state edifices of India , far away in Central Asia mouldered tile relics of the Bactriaii rule , the Gothic monarchy flourished in Spain , the Merovingian dynasty survived in Gaul . In Northern Europe pagan doctrine still possessed the minds of the uncultured nations , though the mission of Augustine to England had taken place . From Northern Asia the Turkish and Mongolian hordes were pouring still further northwards beyond the Caspian and Euxine seas ; the Itonian frontier on the Danube was menaced by Huns , Avars , and Chazars , who had traversed regions , now known as Russian and Turkish , but then unsettled and unsubdued . Everywhere beyond the limits of the empires of Justin and Khosru nations were migrating , barbarians were ruling , and

    uninteilectual tyrannies were preparing the way for war and revolution . At t his period , the career of Mohammed was an apparition , surprising and troublingthe world . With reference to its effects , Mr . Freeman ' s views are sufficiently liberal ; but . he does riot adopt the extravagant idea that a Mohammedan state upon the borders of Christian Europe is a political necessity . Mohammed himself he respects as a civil and religious reformer in Arabia , as a man who could gather the scattered tribes of his people into one united nation , and sweep away the idolatry of the Kaaba . But , in his own day , he has an antipathy to the Turk , and a sympathy withi the Arab , illustrating his opinions on this point by a reference to those of Sir Arthur Elton , who admitted some of Mr . . Freeman ' s contributions among his well-known Tracts for the Times .

    Persia , Syria , Africa , Spain , the countries beyond the Oxiis , saw the lurid light of the Crescent flash across and far beyond their borders . But the early Saracens were not the cruel conquerors that their successors in power , the Ottomans , proved themselves to be . In the record of their Government , we find no parallel to the massacres of Chios or the devastation of Crete ; even the bloody Abbassides were less ferocious than the successors of Othrnan . Among these Abbassides it is remarkable that Haroun-alliashid , the contemporary and correspondent of Charlemagne , the most celebrated of his lineage , was by no means the most estimable . He has been made an Alfred , an Arthur , a Solomon ; yet even the mythical history of his reign depicts him as a capricious despot , who could be as merciless as any Suleiman , and who never acted with a magnanimity analagous to that

    of ivhosru . Upon this topic Mr . freeman has some very apt remarks . Haroun threatens the grand vizier of the Caliphate and all his relations with death because a corpse is found in the Tigris ; he then forgives them because they tell him an extraordinary story . He assassinates his minister Jaffier , and slaughters the Barmecides , without the least justification ; he drinks wine in defiance of his vows , and of the national religion ; he is a slave-hunter and an adorer of vanities . The reason of his historical elevation , however , is to be found in the circumstance that , like another Louis XIV ., he gave his reign a meretricious aspect of glory . Under his successor was witnessed the contrast of a declining empire . . Mr . Freeman assigns no sufficient reason for refusing to Timour the glory

    of founding in India the great dynasty of the Moguls . He overthrew the existing dynasty , broke up the old empire , assumed the dominion of the vast peninsula , and left it to his successors . Baber was his descendant , and Baber established the Turki line at Delhi , by virtue of the triumphs of arms and polity accomplished by Timour . Humayun , Akbar , Jehanghir , Shnh Jehan , Aurungzebe , close this magnificent succession of princes , who created in Hindostan an empire of fitful glory , which passed away , leaving little more than a multitude of vain monuments to commemorate its existence . The reader interested in these fascinating episodes of history will find them treated concisely , with refinement yet with vigour , by Mr . Freeman .

    3 r 2 > , tro P tuefJ of Abbas , the virtues of Akbar , the disasters that befel the Moliammedan dynasty in Hindostan after the death of Aurungzebe . A wo conspicuous empires divided the rule of the civilized world , when Mohammed appeared . On the Western throne sat Justin II ., on the Eastern , Khosru , Burnamod Nurshivan . The edicts of Justin wore still obeyed from

    The Eighteenth Century. The Eighteenth C...

    THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . The Eighteenth Century , or , Illustrations of the Manners and Custoyns of our Grandfathers . By Alexander Andrews . Chapman and HalL According to the expectations formed by the reader , and his knowledge of the subject , this book will receive two very different verdicts . Those who want a philosophical or well-informed guide through the winding ways o £ the eighteenth century , had better not open Mr . Andrewa ' s volume ; they will find in it neither literature nor learning above the standard of a secondrate magazine . But to a large class of readers—persons ) who like light gossipy books , and are altogether uncritical—Mr . Andrews offers a succes-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25101856/page/17/